Increasing energy demand, coupled with the recent emphasis on domestic production, has resulted in an increase in natural gas exploration and pipeline construction in the central Appalachian region. Very little is known about the effects of natural gas pipeline construction on sediment production. The goals of this project were to measure erosion and examine the effects of vegetation and precipitation characteristics on erosion on a newly constructed pipeline in the Fernow Experimental Forest in West Virginia. The study explored whether seed rate, slope class, or aspect, influenced erosion. The cross country pipeline was buried beneath the surface on study hillslopes ranging from 30-68% and beneath a less steep segment with slopes ranging from 18-26%. A mixture of native herbaceous-plant seeds and straw mulch were applied following construction. Two different seeding rates were applied to compare vegetative recovery and to determine if increasing the seed rate would decrease erosion. A 1-time seed rate, or the normal Forest Service application rate, and a 3-time seed rate (1-time + twice that rate) were tested. Two aspects (northwest-facing and southeast-facing) and four precipitation variables (30-minute maximum intensity, duration, total rainfall amount, and time since last event) were defined. Sediment concentrations were compared for differences between two slopes, two seed rates, and two aspect classes. Precipitation variables were analyzed to identify those that could explain significant amounts of the variability in erosion from the pipeline. The 1-time seed rate sections produced less sediment than the 3-time seed rate sections, but this was probably more a function of subsurface flow differences associated with the sections seeded with the lighter rate and the water bar construction. Precipitation intensity explained the most variability in erosion. Study sites with gentler slopes produced less sediment than the steeper sections, as expected. As vegetation became established, sediment concentrations decreased for all study sections and reached low and relatively constant levels by approximately the end of August 2009.

Because of a perceived increase in school related violence, a political reaction occurred in Missouri that led in 1997 to the Missouri Safe Schools Act. This new law significantly changed school disciplinary policy and allowed administrators to move large groups of students to alternative education programs, or expel them to the streets. The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn from students who attended at least one year in an alternative education program about their experiences. I interviewed 26 former students and another 14 former students entered into the conversation by posting their thoughts on a Facebook site for alumni of a specific alternative program. The 40 former students shared common stories that indicated their confusion, a misuse of power by the school district, and a lack of due process surrounding the events that led to their suspensions. At the same time, they shared many stories of relationships, kindnesses, and empathy that they experienced from the alternative school teachers and administrators. Results point to the need for families to educate themselves (and sometimes resist) arbitrary decisions made by school personnel, and the importance of teacher and administrator selection for alternative school programs.

O reparo em dutos defeituosos é previsto por normas e literatura, porém existe grande espaço para definição dos parâmetros ideais para aplicação prática e avaliação do desempenho destes reparos em fadiga. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo a definição dos parâmetros ideais para aplicação de reparos eficientes do tipo dupla calha sem solda circunferencial e com carregamento externo em escala real em dutos com defeitos de mossa com cava. O reparo é baseado na instalação de duas calhas concêntricas ao duto a ser reparado, preenchendo-se o defeito com resina e aplicando carga de compressão através de atuadores hidráulicos com correntes a fim de induzir tensões compressivas na região do defeito e, por fim, as calhas são unidas longitudinalmente pelo processo de soldagem. Para este trabalho, foi realizada uma modelagem numérica utilizando o método de elementos finitos de modo a simular a reprodução do defeito, ensaios de fadiga sem reparo, parâmetros para aplicação do reparo, ensaios de fadiga com reparo e, por fim, ensaio hidrostático. O procedimento proposto foi a reprodução do defeito, primeiramente o duto foi deformado com uma esfera metálica, de modo a formar uma mossa de profundidade igual a 6 % do diâmetro externo e, em seguida, a cava foi usinada com a utilização de um disco abrasivo. Após a produção do defeito, três amostras foram ensaiadas em fadiga, de modo a produzir uma amostra de referência sem reparo a ser comparada com os corpos de prova com reparo. O reparo dupla calha foi aplicado em duas amostras com defeito, sendo essas então submetidas a ensaios de fadiga. Esses ensaios indicaram que ambas as amostras resistiram a um número de ciclos correspondentes a 100 anos de vida em serviço. Por fim, as amostras reparadas após o ensaio de fadiga foram submetidas a ensaios hidrostáticos até a ruptura, a fim de avaliar a vida remanescente. Ambos os dutos romperam fora da região reparada, com uma pressão 2,1 %, menor que a pressão calculada analiticamente. Como principal resultado, foram obtidos parâmetros ideais para aplicação do reparo dupla calha em dutos com defeito tipo mossa com cava. Os resultados experimentais mostram convergência em relação aos dados do modelo numérico, provando que a modelagem por elementos finitos pode ser uma ferramenta útil no desenvolvimento deste tipo de trabalho. / Defective duct repairs are envisaged by norms and by the literature, yet there is enough space left to define ideal parameters for practical application and performance evaluation of these fatigue repairs. This work’s objective is to define the ideal parameters for the application of efficient repairs in double spouts without circumferential welding and real scale external loading in ducts with dent and gouge defects. The repair is based on the installation of two concentric spouts in the duct, filling the defect with resin and applying compression loading through hydraulic actuators with currents to induce compressive stresses in the defective area. Afterwards, the spouts are united lengthwise through the process of welding. To develop this work, we conducted a numerical modelling by using the finite element method to simulate the reproduction of the defect, as well as fatigue tests with no repairs, parameters for the application of repairs, fatigue tests with repairs, and finally a hydrostatic test. The proposed procedure was the reproduction of the defect. At first the duct was deformed with a metallic sphere, to form a dent whose depth was equal to 6 % of the external diameter and, subsequently, the gouge was machined with the help of an abrasive disk. Following the production of a defect, three samples were tested in fatigue to produce a reference sample without repair which would be compared to the samples with repairs. The double spout repair was applied in two samples with defects, which were then subjected to fatigue tests. These tests showed that both samples resisted to a number of cycles corresponding to a 100-year use lifespan. At last, the samples repaired after fatigue tests were subjected to hydrostatic tests until rupture, in order to evaluate their remaining lifespan. Both ducts ruptured outside of the repaired region, with a stress rate of 2.1 %, lower than the stress calculated analytically. The main result of this study was obtaining ideal parameters for the application of double spout repair in ducts with dents and gouge defects. The experimental results show convergence in relation to the numerical model data, proving that finite element modelling can be a useful tool when conducting this kind of work.

This diploma thesis was composed as a part of the resolution of the student team research project GAJU 029/2011/S of the Grant Agency of the University of Southern Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice. The main goal of this thesis is an evaluation of the economic behavior of non-financial enterprises in the ownership of the government (NPVV) in the selected sector of the national economy. The theoretical part is dealing with a short description of these enterprises and with issues with their efficiency. This was analysed in separate studies. The practical part deals with a development of the individual types of the profitability (type of an income of the production) in the context of the national economy and industry type if the of selected national accounts during the 1999 - 2010 period. The conclusions of the individual chapters are interconnected at the end of this thesis. The method is to compare the conclusions from the industry subsectors with the conclusions from the national economy subsector. The conclusions are compared with the NPVV informations extracted from the related studies. The non-financial enterprises subsector indicator results are also evaluated in this thesis. The analysed branch was the ground and pipeline transportation branch due to substantial share of the public non-financial enterprises NPV (13.3 %) and the national private non-financial enterprises NPS (3.74 %) production in 2010 (these were the main subsectors of the researched non-financial enterprises). The production and the income have been approsimately developed at the same average as in the sector and the national economy also. Their output is comparable due to that. The comparation of the profitability by using the gross added value shows us that the NPV have better results. However the position of NPV and NPS switches and the differences become deepen when we use the net added value and other sources of income. There is even a regular negative profitability if we use the net disposable income of the NPV. There is an issue with the salary of the employees mainly in the NPV according to the research. But it is interesting that issues related to the financial crisis are not affecting the NPV as fast as the NPS. The NPS is affected by the problems almost immediately, however the NPV are affected with a delay and with a less intensity. The essential recommendation is to introduce a control of any commercial enterprises with any state partnership through the Highest inspecting office.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Claudio nogueira de Meneses / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Computação, 2015.

Submitted by Oliveira Flávia (flavia@sisbin.ufop.br) on 2014-01-27T18:38:17Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23748 bytes, checksum: b92763cfc0af52c7c868455edfaf3266 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO_TerraMEObserverPipeline.pdf: 3329082 bytes, checksum: 03b5d8ae577625e3907998bfddef5119 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gracilene Carvalho (gracilene@sisbin.ufop.br) on 2014-02-03T12:05:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23748 bytes, checksum: b92763cfc0af52c7c868455edfaf3266 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO_TerraMEObserverPipeline.pdf: 3329082 bytes, checksum: 03b5d8ae577625e3907998bfddef5119 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-02-03T12:05:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23748 bytes, checksum: b92763cfc0af52c7c868455edfaf3266 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO_TerraMEObserverPipeline.pdf: 3329082 bytes, checksum: 03b5d8ae577625e3907998bfddef5119 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / A visualização científica é uma eficiente ferramenta de síntese, pois permite transformar o grande volume de dados científicos produzidos diariamente em informações relevantes. Quando aplicada em áreas como a de modelagem ambiental, ela contribui em diversos níveis, como, no desenvolvimento e melhoria dos modelos ambientais, interpretação e comunicação de resultados e no apoio à tomada de decisão e à definição de políticas públicas. A visualização é o resultado de uma sequência de processos de transformações, chamada pipeline, na qual imagens bidimensionais são construídas a partir dos dados em estudo. Apesar das arquiteturas de pipelines de visualização terem sido alvo de melhoria em diversas pesquisas recentes e serem aplicadas com sucesso na visualização de volumes massivos de dados, não foram encontrados relatos de plataformas de modelagem ambiental que utilizassem o conceito de pipeline em seus serviços de visualização. Por estas razões, este trabalho apresenta a concepção e o projeto de uma arquitetura de alto desempenho para pipelines destinados à visualização de simulações ambientais. Essa arquitetura chamada TerraME Observer foi implementada como uma extensão do simulador ambiental TerraME e avaliada segundo análise de desempenho e planejamento de capacidade. De forma cíclica e incremental, esses experimentos permitiram gradativamente identificar e reduzir gargalos de processamento. Comparando-se os desempenhos das versões inicial e final da arquitetura, os resultados dos experimentos mostram uma redução de 60% a 80% no tempo de resposta do serviço de visualização e um aumento inferior a 7% no consumo de memória. A arquitetura TerraME Observer é extensível, flexível e pode ser utilizada por qualquer outro ambiente de modelagem para implementar seus serviços de visualização. ___________________________________________________________________________ / ABSTRACT: Scientific Visualization is an efficient synthesis tool as it allows the transformation of a large volume of scientific data produced on a daily basis. When applied in areas such as environmental modeling, scientific visualization contributes on many levels, for example, in the development and improvement of environmental models, interpretation and communication of results, and support for decision-making and public policies. Visualization is the result of a sequence of transformations, called pipeline, in which two-dimensional images are constructed from the data in the study. Although the architectures of visualization pipelines have been targeted for improvement in several recent studies and been applied successfully in the visualization of massive volumes of data, there were no reports of environmental modeling platforms that used the concept of pipeline in their visualization services. For these reasons, this work presents the conception and design of an architecture for high-performance pipelines intended for viewing environmental simulations. This architecture, called TerraME Observer, was implemented as an extension of the simulator TerraME and evaluated through experiments for performance analysis and capacity planning. These experiments allowed a gradual and cyclical identification and reduction of processing bottlenecks. Comparing the performance of the initial and final versions of the architecture, the results of the experiments show a reduction in response time of visualization service with an improvement of between 60 to 80 per cent, and an increase of less than 7 per cent in memory consumption. The TerraME Observer architecture is extensible, flexible and can be used by any modeling environment to implement its visualization services.

abstract: Much of the water and wastewater lines in the United States are nearing the end of their useful life. A significant reinvestment is needed in the upcoming decades to replace or rehabilitate the water and wastewater infrastructure. Currently, the traditional method for delivering water and wastewater pipeline engineering and construction projects is design-bid-build (DBB). The traditional DBB delivery system is a sequential low-integration process and can lead to inefficiencies and adverse relationships between stakeholders. Alternative project delivery methods (APDM) such as Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) have been introduced to increase stakeholder integration and ultimately enhance project performance. CMAR project performance impacts have been studied in the horizontal and vertical construction industries. However, the performance of CMAR projects in the pipeline engineering and construction industry has not been quantitatively studied. The dissertation fills this gap in knowledge by performing the first quantitative analysis of CMAR performance on pipeline engineering and construction projects. This study’s two research objectives are: (1) Develop a CMAR baseline of commonly measured project performance metrics (2) Statistically compare the cost and schedule performance of CMAR to that of the traditional DBB delivery method A thorough literature review led to the development of a data collection survey used in conjunction with structured interviews to gather qualitative and quantitative performance data from 66 completed water and wastewater pipeline projects. Performance data analysis was conducted to provide performance benchmarks for CMAR projects and to compare the performance of CMAR and DBB. This study provides the first CMAR performance benchmark for pipeline engineering and construction projects. The results span across seven metrics in four performance areas (cost, schedule, project change, and communication). Pipeline projects delivered using CMAR have a median cost and schedule growth of -5% and 5.10%, respectively. These results are significantly improved from DBB baseline performance shown in other industries. To verify this, a statistical analysis was done to compare the cost and schedule performance of CMAR to similar DBB pipeline projects. The results show that CMAR pipeline projects are being delivered with 6.5% less cost growth and with 12.5% less schedule growth than similar DBB projects, providing owners with increased certainty when delivering their pipeline projects. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil Engineering 2015

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-10-08Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:10:45Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_vl_me_jabo.pdf: 450983 bytes, checksum: dcdafaf631177f27591edd9c5473b0ef (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho teve por objetivo analisar o custo do transporte de vinhaça produzida na Usina Santa Adélia - Pereira Barreto. Foram levantados os custos de diferentes formas de transporte: com caminhões tanque, canais aplicadores, adutora móvel e adutora fixa. Foi utilizada uma metodologia que considera a estrutura de custo total de produção para a determinação dos custos de transporte (R$/m³). O custo total para cada sistema foi composto pelos custos fixos e variáveis. Nos custos fixos foram considerados a depreciação e remuneração do capital fixo e, nos custos variáveis, os gastos com operação de cada sistema, representados por: mão-de-obra, consumo de combustível, quando presente, manutenção e reparos. Os resultados desse estudo mostram que o transporte com adutora fixa apresenta as seguintes vantagens quando comparado ao transporte com caminhões: redução do custo com mão de obra, eliminação do custo com combustível, custo total 95 % inferior ao do transporte com caminhões / This work aimed to analyze the cost transportation of the vinasse produced by Santa Adélia Plant - Pereira Barreto. The costs of different ways of transportation were considered: with tank trucks, applicator channels, mobile and fixed pipeline. A methodology which considers the structure of total production cost for the determination of transportation costs (R$/m³). The total cost for each system was composed by the fixed and variable costs. In the fixed costs, it was considered the depreciation and the remuneration of the fixed capital and, in the variable costs, the expenditures with the operation of each system represented by: labor force, fuel consumption (when there is), maintenance and repairs. The results of this study show that the transportation with fixed pipeline presents the following advantages when compared to the transportation by trucks: reduction of the labor force cost, elimination of the fuel cost, and total cost 95 % inferior in relation to the truck transportation

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6777.pdf: 1533148 bytes, checksum: 25830198cf2d72379370c2466a0688cc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-04 / The physical limitations of silicon forced the industry to develop solutions that exploit the processing power of combining several general purpose processors. Even complex supercomputers that have multiple processors, they are still considered to inefficient processes that require large amounts of arithmetic operations using floating point data. Reconfigurable computing is gaining more space to have a performance close to a specific purpose devices (ASIC), and yet keep the flexibility provided by the architecture of general purpose processors. However, the complexity of hardware description languages often becomes a problem to the development of new projects. Tools for high-level synthesis have become more popular, they allow the transformation code in high-level hardware simply and quickly. However, solutions found in current tools generate simple hardware that does not exploit the techniques to improve the pipeline in hardware. This paper presents the development of techniques to exploit processing parallelism of the reconfigurable devices through programs described in language C. These techniques identify loops and improve the performance in hardware. As a result, we have improved in the high-level synthesis process generating optimized hardware. / A limitação física do silício forçou a indústria a desenvolver soluções que explorassem o poder de processamento de combinação de vários processadores de propósito geral. Mesmo os supercomputadores complexos que dispõem de vários processadores, eles ainda são considerados ineficientes para processamentos que exigem grandes quantidades de operações aritméticas utilizando dados em ponto flutuante. A computação reconfigurável vem ganhando cada vez mais espaço por ter um desempenho próximo aos dispositivos de propósito específico (ASIC), e ainda assim, manter a flexibilidade proporcionada pela arquitetura dos processadores de propósito geral. Entretanto, a complexidade das linguagens de descrição de hardware se torna muitas vezes uma barreira para o desenvolvimento de novos projetos. Ferramentas de síntese de alto nível vem se popularizando, elas permitem a transformação de códigos em alto nível em hardware de maneira simples e rápida. Entretanto, soluções encontradas nas ferramentas atuais, geram hardware simples que não exploram as técnicas que permitam melhorar o pipeline em hardware. Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de técnicas que permitem explorar o poder do paralelismo nos dispositivos reconfiguráveis por meio de programas descritos em uma linguagem C. Essas técnicas identificam laços de repetição e melhoram o desempenho em hardware. Como resultado, temos a melhora no processo de síntese de alto nível gerando hardware otimizado.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-17T18:39:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2590.pdf: 1752867 bytes, checksum: 7dd2196f0a9d489b35a0759a6cc018c6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-09-04 / Pipeline systems for genomic and transcriptomic analysis aim to create communication bridges among the existing analysis tools, therefore reducing researchers efforts. Most of the pipelines found in the literature lack important features which would be useful to the development of genome or transcriptome sequencing projects. Among them, the capacity of tracking the project results along its development, including the generation of partial reports; the presence of a collaborative environment where the involved laboratories can contribute with new data and chromatograms; the possibility to configure analysis parameters; multiple pipeline support and the possibility to include new tools and modules. In this work, a pipeline prototype was developed to overcome these shortcomings. Sequencing projects progresses are tracked along all over their developments. Chromatograms are progressively received along the development of the project and partial reports over newly received data are generated. The communication with the processing server is done via Web service, which offers a universal language interface, allowing client applications in heterogeneous platforms to submit data and execute operations and queries. Pipelines are configured in XML documents written in a predefined format, through which the researchers choose the tools and parameters to be used. The prototype offers support to multiple pipelines executed simultaneously in the same project. Pipelines are executed in parallel by the means of thread pools, what increases efficiency by distributing the workload in multiprocessed systems. Another feature of the prototype is the extensibility as each pipeline step is wrapped in a module. New modules can be easily inserted in the system through the implementation of a programming interface, therefore without the needing of recompilation. Module insertions are done in a declarative way through XML documents. A client application was also developed in the collaborative platform Sakai, allowing different research groups involved in a sequencing project to create pipelines, view results and exchange information on the project current status. To evaluate the efficiency of the prototype, a case study was carried out. Sequences generated from sequencing of Sphenophorus levis transcriptome were submitted and a pipeline was configured to analyze the data. The case study has pointed out that the prototype is efficient and produces good results. / Sistemas de pipeline para análise de genomas e transcriptomas têm o objetivo de criar pontes de comunicação entre as diferentes ferramentas no intuito de reduzir os esforços do pesquisador no processo de análise. A maioria dos pipelines descritos na literatura carece de funcionalidades importantes para o desenvolvimento de projetos de sequenciamento. Entre elas, a capacidade de acompanhar e gerar resultados parciais das análises ao longo do desenvolvimento do projeto; a presença de um ambiente colaborativo onde os diferentes laboratórios envolvidos possam contribuir com novos dados e cromatogramas; a possibilidade da configuração dos parâmetros da análise; o suporte a múltiplos pipelines com diferentes configurações; e o suporte à inclusão de novos programas e módulos. Neste trabalho, foi desenvolvido um protótipo que supre essas deficiências. O progresso dos projetos é acompanhado ao longo de todo o seu desenvolvimento. Para isso, recebe dados brutos de cromatogramas, realiza análises dos dados parciais e emite relatórios com os resultados. A comunicação com o servidor de processamento é realizada via Web service, oferecendo uma interface na linguagem universal XML que permite que aplicações cliente em plataformas heterogêneas submetam dados e realizem operações e consultas. Os pipelines são configurados através de arquivos XML em formato específico, no qual o pesquisador define os programas a parâmetros a utilizar. O protótipo dá suporte a múltiplos pipelines com execução simultânea em um mesmo projeto. A execução dos pipelines é realizada em paralelo por meio de um pool de threads, o que aumenta a eficiência dividindo a carga de processamento em servidores com mais de um núcleo. Uma aplicação cliente foi desenvolvida na plataforma colaborativa, permitindo que os diferentes grupos de pesquisa envolvidos no sequenciamento criem pipelines, visualizem resultados e troquem informações sobre o andamento do projeto. Outro diferencial do protótipo desenvolvido é a extensibilidade. Cada etapa do pipeline é encapsulada em um módulo. Novos módulos podem ser facilmente inseridos sem a necessidade de recompilação de todo o sistema, bastando para isso que o mesmo implemente uma interface específica. A inserção no sistema é realizada declarativamente em arquivos XML. Um estudo de caso foi realizado com a submissão de cromatogramas a partir do sequenciamento de ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) de Sphenophorus Levis. Um pipeline foi configurado para o estudo, e sua execução mostrou que o sistema é eficiente e apresenta bons resultados.